Worrals Investigates/plot
Chapter 1: Coffee for Three Worrals and Frecks meet Air Commodore Raymond while out shopping. The two girls are, of course, bored with civilian life and ask him if he has a case for them. He does and it concerns a remote British atoll in the South Pacific named Outside Island. Around 1900, an eccentric Englishman named Prout had settled there and had begun to dominate and enslave the native population, forcing them to build him a palace out of coral. Not long after, a hurricane had swept over the atoll, leaving no survivors. For a long time the atoll was believed to be uninhabited but recently native islanders from the Paumotus had called at the island. To their surprise, they were met by a volley of gunfire which killed one of them. The shots had been fired by a group of women, one of whom had red hair. Chapter 2: More Coffee for Three France, which administed the Paumotus had complained. The British government had been inclined to dismiss the report but later it had diverted a passing naval sloop to the atoll and its landing party had also been shot at. Something was indeed going on. Worrals is inclined to believe the native report. It is simply too fantastic to have been made up--a white woman with red hair? Nor could the people there be castaways--they would not have shot at their potential saviours. Worrals and Frecks agree to fly to the island to investigate. Chapter 3: Beyond the Blue Horizon Worrals and Frecks check up on ships reported lost in recent years. Only one carried women, a luxury yacht named Vanity captained by Lady Amelia Haddington, a millionaire's daughter. But that was presumed lost in the Atlantic. Many women had been reported missing during that time as well but all seemed to be disparate backgrounds and unlikely to be linked. The only way to solve the mystery is to fly to Outside Island, so Worrals and Frecks set off on a Seafarer amphibian. Arriving at the atoll, they put down on the lagoon furthest from where Prout had built his palace. Chapter 4: Mystery upon Mystery Exploring the island, Worrals and Frecks come across cartridge cases and then spot a ship aground in the other lagoon. It's the Cleopatra but closer inspection reveals it was the Vanity with a new name painted over. Hearing a dreadful scream, they trace the source to a locked door below decks. Worrals forces it open and a native woman runs out. She evades Frecks and dives into the water. To Worrals, she looks like a Melanesian or Micronesian. The atoll is in Polynesia, so how did the woman get there? Chapter 5: A Curious Encounter The wind gets up so Worrals returns to the Seafarer to secure it while Frecks takes a walk to explore round the next bend. Preparing the campfire, Worrals notices a figure creeping nearer and spying on her. She ambushes the figure and finds that it is a Melanesian girl named Mati. She tells Worrals the island is ruled by queen. She had locked her up in the yacht for not working hard and had also whipped her. Chapter 6: Frecks Goes Her Way Meanwhile Frecks is captured by a tall middle-aged woman with red hair wielding a rifle. She is taken to the palace where the queen orders her to be locked up. Chapter 7: The Singular Story of Mabel Stubbs Worrals is worried that Frecks is late and goes off to look for her. She meets another girl running down the beach. It's Mabel Stubbs. She tells Worrals she had answered an advertisement for a laundress. It turned out the job was on a yacht, the Vanity, which was crewed entirely by women and captained by Amelia Haddington. She had employed Mabel and many other girls and had set off for a long trip. Mabel later learnt that Haddington had suffered a nervous breakdown after a failed relationship with a man and needed constant care by several nurses. However the true extent of Haddington's insanity was revealed when Haddington declared herself queen. The yacht headed for Outside Island where it became wrecked in the lagoon after which Haddington had set up her private kingdom using Prout's building as her palace. Haddington's trusted nurses became her bodyguard and "cabinet". The worst was a red haired woman named Dr Borran. The queen with her cronies, nine of them altogether, ruled the rest, serving girls, with an iron fist. Girls who misbehaved were locked up in cells in the palace or on the yacht. Mabel had seen Frecks being brought in and locked up. She concluded there must be a ship nearby and ran to find it, hoping to escape. Chapter 8: Worries for Worrals Borran might send out search parties to find the "ship" so Worrals moves the Seafarer and hides it behind an islet in the lagoon. She then sets off for the palace to rescue Frecks. Mabel and Mati come along as guides. Chapter 9: Taking the Bull by the Horns Worrals confronts Haddington and her cronies at the palace and demands the release of Frecks. Her announcement that she is an agent of Scotland Yard has its effect on the assembly. Only Dr Borran tries to sidle towards her rifle. Worrals produces her pistol and orders her to keep still. She then orders Mabel to take her keys and release Frecks and any other prisoners from the punishment cells as well as all the serving girls who had been locked in their dormitory. When all the girls had been released, Worrals asks if they wish to leave the place and they all do. Worrals then tells everyone that pending the arrival of transport, all must cooperate and comply with new terms: no more beatings or lockings up and all food and comforts to be shared equally. The serving girls all agree. Of the queen's cronies, only four, including Haddington and Borran, refuse. Worrals instructs some girls to take Haddington to her room and stay with her but suddenly there is the crash of a rifle and the sound of a scuffle behind Worrals. Nurse Lillie, one of the queen's bodyguard, had been out searching for Worrals' ship. She had returned unknown to Worrals and had taken aim with her rifle. Mati had spotted her and deflected her shot just in time but the bullet injures another girl. Chapter 10: Desperate Measures Worrals has Nurse Lillie locked up in one of the cells. But now Borran has disappeared and so has Lillie's rifle. She must have taken the opportunity to sneak out during the commotion. Worrals sends Frecks out to the Seafarer. She should try to raise someone on the radio to get help or, failing that, head for Papeete in Tahiti where she can get in touch with London. The weather is getting up so Frecks has to go immediately, even though it would mean running the gauntlet of Borran prowling around outside with a rifle. Chapter 11: Doubts and Dangers At daybreak, Worrals sets out to look around. The aircraft is no longer there so it appears Frecks managed to get away. Next she finds Borrans' body. She had been killed by an arrow. She thinks she sees a dark form stalking her. Then another arrow narrowly misses her and strikes a palm tree. Worrals makes a run for it and reaches the palace safely. The two native girls, Mati and Tepi are puzzled by the attack but then from Worrals' description of the dark form, Mati thinks its the islanders who came previously to collect coconuts. Borran had fired on them, killing one. Now they had come back to take revenge. Chapter 12: Hard Going Braving falling coconuts, collapsing palm trees and shots by Dr Borran, Frecks makes it safely to the aircraft and takes off successfully in the rapidly worsening weather. Chapter 13: Frecks Tells Her Tale Tepi and the other native girls offer to go and tell the men who had arrived that things had changed on the island and this would stop their attack. They return after a few hours to say that there is no sign of the attackers. Frecks arrives earlier than expected. She had been unable to raise anyone on radio because of the storm. But she had sighted a trading schooner at Raratua and landed near it. It's the Viete, owned by a Scot named Donald MacDougal. By coincidence, the French administration had asked him to look in on Outside Island. So there was no need for Frecks to push on to Tahiti. He would take the schooner to the island and could pick up the people who wanted to leave. Chapter 14: Home Again The queen, her nurses and some of her old servants refuse to leave so Worrals and Frecks decide it is best to leave them be. Donald picks up as many as he can. Worrals and Frecks flies two girls who nearly blind from sun glare to Papeete. The French would send a lugger later to pick up the native girls on the island. Donald gets a contract from the British government to visit the island every six months to check on those who chose to remain, but the following year, a hurricane inundated the island and swept everything off, leaving no trace of the inhabitants. Worrals and Frecks return the Britain where Raymond closes the case with another invitation to coffee and cakes. Category:Plot summaries